Child healthcare in Europe, local diversities and collective potentials: A study of the European Paediatric Association/Union of National European Paediatric Societies and Associations.

This introductory article presents the project developed by the EPA-UNEPSA on child healthcare in Europe, emphasizing the role of local diversities as collective potentials. The EPA-UNEPSA is strongly convinced that an effective cooperation among European countries is based on the acknowledgement that diversity is a factor of strength, and not of weakness, and that such a factor may create the basis of an effective cooperation in all fields of public interest. Since its foundation in 1975, EPA-UNEPSA has worked to improve child healthcare and to strength the cooperation of children's caretakers in Europe. The studies published in this volume pursue this line of thought, in the belief that contributing to the efforts of creating an effective platform for cooperation and a multidisciplinary approach to common issues in public health may reduce fragmentation of paediatrics and tackle the legal, economic, and organisational challenges of child healthcare in Europe.